Save State Hero -Ch 19- (Patreon)

“Oz! What the fuck is going on!?” shouted Edmund over the sound of reality tearing itself asunder.

“This reality has become damaged,” Oz reported. “I’m attempting to correct. I’ve requested assistance.”

“Who the fuck could help with this?!” demanded Edmund watching as the sky was ripped in half and he could see a black inky nothingness beyond it.

Like a hole being poked through a piece of paper.

“Assistance received. Attempting to reintegrate reality,” Oz stated, leaving Edmund feeling as if Oz hadn’t even heard him.

Or didn’t care to respond.

Unbelievably, the giant tear in the sky began to slowly slide back together. Similar to a zipper that was being pulled very slowly, the two halves folded together and began to mend themselves.

“What the shit, are you recording this, Mina?” Edmund whispered, turning to look at Romina.

She was unmoving.

Now that he thought about it, the communications lines were silent as well. Everything was silent except for the noises coming from reality itself breaking apart.

Glancing from Romina, Ellie, then Iren, he found they were all completely motionless. Still as statues.

As if the world was on pause for everyone but Edmund.

“Okay, Oz, the fuck? The fuck actually is going on? Is everyone stuck?” Edmund asked, taking a moment to move closer to Iren. She was the only person’s face he could see.

“Edmund is Edmund. Everyone else is everyone else. Edmund is of course unaffected by the situation,” advised Oz.

“That makes no sense,” Edmund whispered, reaching up and lightly touching Iren’s cheek.

The skin felt as hard as a rock and immovable. As if she were made of diamond and weighed as much as an elephant did.

She didn’t feel alive.

“Edmund is Edmund, there is no alternative explanation that can be given,” Oz reaffirmed. “Everyone else is everyone else. They are not Edmund.”

“You make it sound like I’m a unique existence,” said Edmund without thinking through the words.

“Edmund is indeed a unique existence,” agreed Oz. “Edmund shouldn’t confuse Edmund with anyone else.”

Errr… yeah.

Everyone is unique unto themselves.

Good point.

Maybe my own uniqueness, my super power, is why I’m not part of the freeze. Not to mention Oz is here and more or less attached to me.

Makes more sense when I think of it that way.

“Reality has been repaired, though there is significant damage to this period in the timeline,” Oz stated. “Any and all attempts to utilize Save-states in this moment and roughly five minutes before or after, will be subject to extreme degradation of the Save-state, as well as information loss.

“I do not recommend you utilizing Save-states from this time-frame lightly. Edmund will very likely be subjected to the ‘Save-state tunnel’ as Edmund calls it should he try.”

Huh?

Errr.

Probably not something I should be trying to make happen. Though… it wouldn’t be terrible to have Save-state here if only to forcefully enter into the tunnel.

“I mention this as Edmund has been given a Save-state for the current moment. It will not count against your Save-state count, but it is accessible. It is advised that you do not access it,” Oz lectured with a severe and strict tone.

I did?

Edmund opened up his super power and looked into his Save-states.

The original Save-state in the twilight zone tunnel was there.

As was the Felix and Ellie Save-state where she offered him her seed.

The third was from this morning.

Fourth was from when he accepted the mission from Faith.

The newest one looked like a still frame out of an apocalypse movie. Edmund’s view of the sky being torn asunder.

Around the save state was a very red and angry looking border. It was practically glowing, in fact.

Except then it flashed to a golden color and the still frame shifted to a sky that’d been just repaired. A golden line traversing the tear in the sky from bottom to top.

Only to suddenly be replaced with a blue border and a sky that looked mundane without anything happening at all. As if there’d been no issue at all.

Once more cycling to the red border.

“That fucking RGB shit is ominous as fuck,” Edmund blurted out.

“It isn’t ideal, no. A confluence of echoes will occur as soon as the world resumes it’s course. That Save-state was forcefully created as more than two-hundred such echoes were being executed.

“Those three are the predominant ones and therefore are what dominate the Save-state.”

“Ec-echoes?” asked Edmund.

Previously he’d realized he severely underestimated what Save-states were and what they did. That he’d dove into his power without understanding anything about it.

Not that there’d been any resources he could have used to find out more, but it didn’t change the fact that he knew very little of it.

Every time he thought he understood more of his power, he found he knew even less, and that it was actually far more disturbing than he’d considered. To the point that he was becoming rather leery of using it.

Whatever an “echo” was, he was sure he’d be the reason they existed, and it had something to do with him doing something stupid. Something that he hadn’t expected an outcome for.

“Echoes,” Oz repeated. “Echoes of Save-states that exist, but aren’t in the active timeline. That they once were the main timeline, even if they’re no longer so.

“An echo of what could have happened, should have happened, or did happen. Those Save-states of course still exist, just as their echoes remain.”

“An… echo of something that existed previously,” Edmund huffed, then winced and closed his eyes. He had an idea of what would be next based on that statement. “Uhm… am I going to have to go through every single echo like I did in the twilight zone tunnel?”

“No.”

“Oh… that’s good.”

“Edmund will experience them all first hand at the same time as if Edmund had lived through them.”

“That’s… that’s not… good. Any chance I can, you know, not do that? That’d be preferable. I’m pretty sure I’m already fucked up enough with everything I’ve done in this life.

“In fact, you know, just consider me downbad on not experiencing the echoes. Just tell me what I gotta do.”

“The confluence will occur momentarily. Edmund will experience it approximately one second before the world resumes it’s course.”

“Oz, I really really don’t want to. How about —”

Edmund was forcefully launched into the position he’d been in as the world froze. Jerked there as if a giant had flicked him away.

Like a roach that was just paper after it’d been burnt up.

Then his mind was absolutely flooded with memories, sensations, and thoughts.

All his own, all from him.

Just different versions of him.

Endless lifetimes of all the Save-states he’d made, used, and then gotten rid of. Memories of poignant parts of his lives that crowded to the front of everything else.

Where large swathes of those lives simply blew through him and left no hold on him, a great many other things stuck and held fast.

Surprisingly, a great many of those things that hung onto him had many similar events at their core. Almost always involving who he ended up with, children, deaths, and things that would likely create Save-states of their own.

Surprisingly, a great many of the things he saw all followed a similar path and trajectory as well. He could even identify where the nexus point of so much things came to fruition as well.

It was Edmund not going on the mission with Felix to begin with.

Where Felix returned from this very mission with everyone in his life being dead or missing. A life in which Edmund had to step in and help his boss pick up the pieces and move forward from there.

In almost every one of these lives, Edmund ended up creating a life with Romina.

Managing to talk her into dating, then marrying, settling down, and having children with her. The number of children varied as did their sexes and names, but it was almost always the same.

Growing old with Romina.

In other memories, he ended up marrying Ellie. If it wasn’t Romina, it was almost always Ellie who was there to scoop him up.

A life with the Dryad ended up being very long indeed. Her using a number of methods to prolong his life and keep him alive for thousands of years.

Living together into the far distant future. Watching civilizations rise and fall all while taking life together one step at a time.

Beyond that there were even a few situations where he somehow ended up with Alina, surprisingly. The gruff and taciturn vampiric angel ending up in his life more through luck an happenstance than anything else.

Though it did happen with some frequency.

Much of his other lives were all him dying alone or never having truly loved anyone. Living a life that was spent in not much more than regret over a million little things that he did wrong.

Unfortunately, among all his lives, there was nothing from his sister.

For some reason, one that he couldn’t identify in all those lifetimes, they never reconnected. His sister simply ceased being part of his life.

Then the world snapped back into focus for him at the same time he was able to surface from the deluge of lives passed through him.

The vast majority of those lives left him completely. Leaving nothing behind other than memories of memories. Things that left fingerprints behind and not much more.

Of what remained was a great deal of knowledge about Ellie, of all people. Alina and Romina were curiously absent in a similar way in his mind.

He knew what was about to happen right now, though.

In his countless lives where he’d chosen to come on the mission, there were a great many where Romina, Iren, or Ellie were harmed or fatally wounded. As if he’d already gone through countless reloads of Save-states at this moment.

Reaching out he grabbed Ellie by the wrist and pulled her up to his side.

“Ah! Edmund!” squeaked Ellie.

Holding her there for a two-count he released her then reached out. At the same time the spot where Ellie had been evaporated into a puff of wood and smoke. The back corner of the building blowing outward.

Edmund grabbed Romina by the helmet, which was easy since she’d turned to look at him, and shoved down on her.

Romina collapsed down to her knees at the sudden force. Her armor clacking as it pounded into the floor directly in front of Edmund.

A chunk of what looked to be a stone column slammed down into the building they were. It’d come in at an angle that’d have taken Romina’s head clean off.

“Stay here,” croaked Edmund even as he saw what would happen next while staring down into Romina’s upturned helmet.

In the depths of his mind he could vaguely feel and sense all the memories he’d experienced. That the impressions they’d left writ largest upon him were the here and now.

That this situation was one he’d worked to fix many times in echoes of non-existant timelines.

Marching out of the building he moved quickly. Almost in a fog, in fact. Feeling more as if he were drunk or waking up from a deep sleep, than truly awake and in the moment.

Moving ahead to the troops that were part of the UN, Edmund was surprised. A large bubble was surrounding them now and blocking out all the incoming attacks.

This wasn’t something that he could remember happening.

Not surprising though, I guess.

This is the first and only time reality was ruptured.

“Edmund! What-what do I do!?” pleaded Ellie from directly behind him. She had one hand stuck in his armor and holding onto him. Her right hand held a pistol.

She was nearly pressed up to the back of him in her own Legionnaire armor.

Err… why is she here? She’s never been here.

“Follow,” he got out as he stumbled ahead.

He needed to knock down a door so that Andrea could get through it. She was in the middle of a flanking maneuver and needed this door open. It’d save her a few seconds so she could save a few soldiers.

Then again, does that even matter? The ones she’d save are behind that bubble.

Smashing out with a kick that splintered the door he’d walked up to in one hit Edmund dragged Ellie inside. He pushed her up into a corner and put his hands to her shoulders.

“Aenor, stay here,” Edmund demanded. He ended up unthinking leaning forward till his helmet was pressed to her. His fingers gripping to her shoulders far tighter than he’d intended. “Root yourself, Aenor Yew. Remain.”

There was a strange sound that came from Ellie before she nodded her head.

Edmund shook his head to clear the strange and cloudy thoughts that threatened to drag him down into the depths. Then turned and headed outside.

He needed to go help Gaia with a Super. One that’d be no match for her, except for the fact that she wouldn’t quite understand what to do with him. To the point that the man had literally talked her out of whooping his ass in many iterations of the world.

“Oz, I think my brain is fucked up,” Edmund declared casually.

“Edmund is suffering the thoughts and memories of all previous Edmunds as well as future Edmunds. It is likely the memories and feelings will fade with time.

“Though you will never actually get rid of them. I’ve repressed most of them for you so that you don’t have a psychotic breakdown,” Oz responded. “There are too many for me to hold them all back, but I can keep it from overwhelming you.”

Edmund laughed at that, though it sounded like a crazed giggle inside his own helmet. The idea of a psychotic breakdown seemed kinda funny to him at the moment.

Then several lifetimes popped up in which he really did have a psychotic breakdown.

Though they were much later in life when his beloved Yew tree died. His sweet Aenor who dragged him along through the centuries.

His beloved Dryad whom he’d just tucked away into a corner for her protection.

No, no! No.

Not me.

Not me, not me.

Not-not me.

I’m this world’s Edmund. I’m not dating anyone yet, but it’ll likely be Romina.

Yeah, that’s me. I’m that-that Edmund.

There was a popping noise in his ears and he felt a lot less pressure from his memories.

“Subduing Edmunds that had a relationship with Ellie Yew, also known as Aenor Yew,” Oz offered up as if it were perfectly normal.

“Ha… fucking Edmund. All bent out of shape over Ellie,” complained Edmund.

“To be fair, those Edmund’s spent collectively together tens of thousands of years with Aenor. The time spent with Romina is significantly less.”

Edmund managed to reach the spot where the large Super was blasting his way through soldiers. Man-handling them as if they were small rodents that needed to be exterminated.

He was dressed in a black outfit that covered him from head to toe with a bright white skull on his chest. Edmund couldn’t help the random thought that labeled him as an “edgelord”.

Then Gaia appeared and slapped him down to the ground in one movement. Her hand moving in a blur and striking flesh with the sound of a thunder crack.

“Ah! Edmund! Hello there,” Gaia replied with a happy laugh. “I’m here to hunt for my husband Felix!

“Though, I did just get a rather amazing prayer of thanks from Ellie. I’m not quite sure what I did to garner such praise from her, though I suspect you’re involved.”

“Gaia, that’s a bad man. He enjoys harming small animals for no reason other than causing them pain,” Edmund reported, pointing at the Super that was just now getting up to his feet. “He then throws the corpses away in the trash without doing anything with them. Didn’t even bother to eat them or even skin them.”

Gaia’s eyes flashed into a bright red color.

She took a step forward, grabbed the super by the back of his masked head, and slammed him down into the dirt. Then she began to punch him repeatedly over and over on his back.

Each and every strike sounded akin to a large round rifle being fired. Her rather delicate and pretty wrist slamming down into the bigger man’s body over and over.

That… that should be that.

Next is… next… there… everything leads here to this moment. This is when Kit and Lily from the Heroes take over and clear the field.

It’s done.

It’s over.

This is the first time I’ve gone through it like this but everything seems perfect.

“Oooh! Gaia… you should probably stop hitting him. We still need to be able to record his information,” an Andrea said, stepping up to Gaia, Edmund, and surprisingly Romina.

They were quickly putting zip-ties onto a number of people who’d been fighting with the rather robust looking Super in this area.

“Nn, nn, then we can kill him afterward! He’s the rapist. Yucky, ucky, smuck,” another Andrea said from somewhere else.

Looking off to the left, Edmund saw thousands of Andreas running around through a building. Popping out of windows, running across the roof, and spilling out of the doors on every side of it.

That’s a lot of Andrea.

A strange black wave wriggled through the air toward Gaia.

The goddess didn’t even notice it’s approach, in truth. No one did till it was already on top of them.

Andrea had seen it though.

Stepping into the way of it she took the hit for Gaia. The black wave vanishing into her back even as Edmund watched in shock.

Andrea paused and held still.

Then every Andrea did the same thing. Each of them becoming immobile. Edmund could see more than a handful that were working near a corner of the building at clearing combatants.

Suddenly every Andrea he could see fell to their hands and knees with a loud groan.

“Feeeelix, it hurts!” came the communal whine through the comms system. It became little better than a chorus of pained mews.

Holy shit.

What the actual fuck?

“Ooowwwwieee… nnnnn… huuuughh,” moaned an Andrea into the coms, followed by what sounded like someone throwing up. “Bring me back quick.”

Then Edmund watched as the Andreas collectively… died.